The Holistic Effect of Primitive Dance on Modern Man.
By Panayiotis Gabrielides(Ph.D.)(USA)
Abstract
The main reason of the study was to determine what role primitive dance plays as a healing modality in the genre of holistic healing. The methodology employed was the theoretical approach, with the literature review being the main tool of the study. The research questions were:
i) Will the existing literature show beyond any doubt that participation in primitive dance is a modality that can be employed to enhance holistic health?
ii) Will the existing literature reveal that adding the dimensions of sacredness, costumes, amb
iii) If primitive dance is beneficial to homo sapiens sapiens, then the existing literature will easily demonstrate that primitive dance is beneficial to homo sapiens sapiens physically, emotionally, spiritually and holistically.
iv) If there are national organizations that support and encourage dance as a modality of healing and or therapy, then that will buttress the hypothesis that primitive dance, as a healing modality has a beneficial and useful place in the life of homo sapiens sapiens.
It was found that primitive dance is definitely a modality that can be beneficially used in the pursuit of holistic health, and that its effectiveness is enhanced by the addition of the sacred dimension, costumes, tribal amb
The general purpose of the study was to examine to what extent regular participation in primitive dance influences the holistic health of an individual and/or group. It was hoped that the study would increase awareness of the holistic value of participation in primitive dance. The holistic health of the individual and or group is in dire need of whatever assistance it can receive towards healing. The intent was to use the Theoretical Research approach. Gintis (2001), states:
It is indeed a sad situation that our natural instinct to move has been
separated from our every day lives. Unfortunately, most people consider
engaging in movement to be simply exercising. Most physic
exercise as a form of therapy, and prescribe it like a drug. Emilie
Conrad, the founder of Continuum Movement, states that, “movement is
what we are, not something we do.” (Conrad 1998, p.49). Ideally, we
should not be able to differentiate movement from the rest of our lives.
An integrated unit of function is not perceivable as separate parts if
it is truly unified. But frequently, we do sense that movement is
either dysfunctional or simply not present. Before movement becomes a
natural aspect of someone's life, it may need to be applied as an
exercise or therapy. We live in fast-paced times where our lives can be
easily dissociated and fragmented. We are separated from the natural
world, our natural rhythms, and our natural instinct to move as part
of our homeostatic, self-correcting, self-healing mechanism. Therefore,
there is a necessity to examine our attitudes and experience of
movement… (¶ 1-2)
There is a horrendous paucity in the general populace of the
recognition and value of primitive dance as a vehicle for holistic health.
It was hoped that the study would make the value of primitive dance
apparent.
Background and History
As things stand, the holistic health of the individual/group will always be under intense attack from the government, big money and society at large, to conform to absolutely inhuman standards that immensely crush the spirit, the mind and the body. Participation in primitive dance showed colossal promise towards guiding the individual, and eventually the group to emancipation, so that the human expression can reach for that sublime “elixir-of-eternal-life” for enhancing holistic health. Jensen (1999), brill
Exercising the trunk, especially the abdominal wall and back, helps keep
the intestine in its proper place and provides structures with good tone for
the intestine to work against. Most primitive cultures have dance
movements that exercise the trunk, back, and abdominal muscles. Modern
Westerners, on the contrary, dance with their legs, and they do this almost
to the exclusion of using the trunk, upper extremities, and neck. (p.54)
Very few westerners are even aware of this. As things stand, the vast majority of the world’s population has no access to health care and very little hope is held out for things to change any time soon. Thus, the average citizen has to fend for himself and find ways and means of enhancing health, without help from the status quo; participation in primitive dance is one such modality. It is very holistic, inexpensive, has no toxic side effects, and is relatively easy to implement in any family/group and or community setting. Dance has been and still is an integral part of homo sapiens sapiens from time immemorial. This can easily be glimpsed when one observes little children up to the age of three or four, before heavy indoctrination has set in; they easily and naturally move to the sound and rhythm of music. It was the intention to show that adults need to move to rhythm, in order to achieve holistic health.
Research Questions
Would the existing literature show that participation in primitive dance is a holistic modality that one can employ to enhance health? If the answer to the above was “yes,” a concomitant question was how to best raise awareness of and encourage participation in primitive dance as a vehicle towards guiding the individual/group to health. Would the existing literature reveal that adding the dimensions of sacredness, costumes, amb
If there are national organizations that support and encourage dance as a modality of healing and therapy, then that would buttress the hypothesis that primitive dance, as a healing modality has a beneficial and useful place in the life of homo sapiens sapiens. It was fully expected that the study based in existing literature would very adequately demonstrate that the answer to the above research questions is in the affirmative.
Significance of the Study
If it could be shown that participation in primitive dance has vast potential for increasing holistic health, then the population would have a natural, inexpensive modality of holistic healing that could possibly change the universe. For example, not only would there be a dramatic increase in physical health, but the spirit and mind would also benefit tremendously as problems like loneliness, issues of abandonment and others would quickly recede. At present, the average individual has absolutely no idea of the holistic value of primitive dance. It was hoped that the study would clearly reveal the powerful holistic benefit of primitive dance.
Definition of Terms
child-of-the-universe-within: the universal child within us, who is not haunted or tainted or taunted by race, gender, politics, dogma, etc/., etc. The innocent child that merely wants to come out and play with it’s fellows.
elixir-of-eternal-life: achieving full human potential.
group: tow or more.
holistic health: the total pursuit of health, mind, body and spirit.
mind-body-spirit triune: the concept of the relatedness of the mind, body and spirit in sustaining health. Spirit meaning the intelligent, immaterial and immortal part of man, the soul, in distinction from the body in which it resides, the agent or subject of vital and spiritual functions, whether spiritual or material. Body meaning the material organized substance of man as distinguished from the spirit, or vital principle; the physical person. Mind meaning the intellectual or rational faculty in man; the understanding, the intellect, the power that conceives, judges, or reasons.
primitive dance: includes all forms of ritual, ceremonial, religious or spiritual forms of movement and dance, that in any way resembles what so-called primitive cultures have been employing from time immemorial to appease the gods, to heal, to commune, to attract a mate, to enjoy and as part of a holistic health regimen. Primitive dance may be further defined as the psychotherapeutic use of movement as a process which furthers the emotional, cognitive, social and physical integration of the individual. It combines rhythmic movement with self-expression to create a physiological response that is of the healing dimension. It acknowledges the connection of the mind and body, and seeks to heal the one through the other, in a setting that may or may not be reminiscent of a primitive tribe dancing in the dawn of time. The time, the setting, the costumes, the place are by far of secondary importance to the actual immersion in and full experience in the participation of primitive dance. Of equal importance is the philosophy, movement, reverence, and the frame of mind that one brings to the experience of primitive dance.
nirvana: the ineffable ultimate in which one has attained disinterested wisdom and compassion. Emancipation from ignorance and the extinction of all attachment. An ideal condition of rest, harmony, stability, or joy.
quantum experience: a multi-sensory experience taking one beyond the five senses into an altered state of consciousness such as the Alpha or Theta brain waves.
status quo: the government, big money, religion, patriarchal societies, etc.
tribe, tribal: any effective community.
Chapter 2: A Review of Related Literature and Research.
Humanity has reached the point where it can confidently state that science cannot exclusively use Cartes
We use terms like mind and body and universe, but what really is the
exact nature of these things? What is the mind, what is the body, what's
the exact nature of physical reality?....One of the interesting things that
science has found, this should have been obvious all along, is that what
we call perception, what we see, hear, touch, taste, and smell, is really the
least reliable test of what reality really is. We cannot trust our senses at
all!
Or you can do another simple experiment. Take some flies and put them
in a jar. After a while remove the lid from the jar and you'll find that most
of the flies, except for a couple of pioneers, will not be able to escape.
They make a commitment in their body-mind that they're in a prison.
Sir John Eckles who won the Nobel prize in physiology and medicine
several years ago made the statement, "I want you to understand that there
are no colors in the real world. That there are no textures in the real world.
There are no fragrances in the real world. There is no beauty, there is no
ugliness. Nothing of the sort. Out there is a chaos of energy soup and
energy fields. Literally. We take that and somewhere inside ourselves we
create a world. Somewhere inside ourselves it all happens."
So what is the material world then? The material world is a cord that
comes out of these forces and the cords of intelligence that structure
particulate matter in fact exist inside us. We are the creators of this world.
Literally….Because our current understanding is that this world is made
up of matter that exists in space and time. That even human bodies are
nothing other than bits and pieces of matter. That the human body is a
physical machine that has somehow learned to think. That it's the dance of
molecules that creates the epi-phenomenon of consciousness: thoughts,
feelings, emotions, desires, concepts, ideas, philosophies, dogma, religion.
All these. Poetry is the expression of the dance of molecules. Somehow
these molecules move around and we get this epi-phenomenon called
thought. We have physical machines that have learned how to think. (¶ 2-
20)
This lengthy quote was necessary to set the stage for one of the major points of the dissertation-the hypothesis that primitive dance is a powerful way of shaping perception and thus the actual experience of third-dimensional reality.
A strong case could be made that so-called reality is as much a figment of the imagination as the paranoid perception of a schizophrenic. Chopra (1991) states:
The human body is not a frozen sculpture fixed in space and time. The
human body is a dynamic bundle of energy, information and intelligence
that constantly is renewing itself and is in exchange with the larger field
of energy, information and intelligence that we call the universe.
So maybe the body is merely the place my memories are calling home for
the time being. Maybe the DNA is also just that place that my
evolutionary memory is calling home for the time being. Maybe I'm not
physical molecules that have created the machine or created the epi-
phenomenon of consciousness. Maybe I'm consciousness itself that has
learned how to create the physical machine. Maybe I am a force of
intelligence coming out of that same unified field that makes stars and
galaxies and rain forests. Maybe I come from that same place too. And
maybe that place was never born and never died and in fact was always
there. I've just forgotten for the moment.
And this is exactly what scientists are beginning to see. Scientists are
beginning to see that it is not thoughts which are a product of molecules,
but in fact molecules are structured out of fluctuations of information in a
field of infinite information. That it is consciousness which is the
phenomenon and matter which is the epi-phenomenon. It is consciousness
which conceives, governs, constructs and actually becomes physical
matter.
What science is discovering is that we have a thinking body. Every cell in
our body thinks. Every cell in our body is actually a mind. Every cell has
its own desires and it communicates with every other cell. The new word
is not mind and body connection, we have a body-mind simultaneously
everywhere.
So when you say, “I have a sad heart,” then you literally have a sad heart.
If a scientist was looking inside the heart, he'd find it heavy with sadness.
He'll find it heavy with sad molecules. If you say, “I'm bursting with joy,”
a scientist could look at your skin. He'll find it loaded with emipramine
which is an antidepressant which in fact, has been used in the treatment of
depression by psychiatrists. If you say, “I feel exhilarated, unbounded and
joyful,” and I was to examine your blood, I would find high levels of
interluken and interferon which are powerful anticancer drugs. (¶24-43)
Absolutely amazing! Here, science is confirming the age-old aphorism: “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Chopra (1991), vividly shows that life is lived in a quantum universe and that ‘reality’ is really a matter of personal interpretation, if not a totally subjective one. From Chopra (1991), it may very validly be concluded that primitive dance is equal to any other modality of healing with the possible exception of trauma, acute illness, or any other medical emergency for which capable help is readily available form allopathic medicine.
Chopra is not alone in his claims, his theories are backed up by other top scientists. McTaggart (2003), chronicles the research of a group of frontier scientists who discovered that the Zero Point Field - an ocean of subatomic vibrations in the space between things - connects everything in the universe, much like the Force in Star Wars. The Field offers a radically new view of the way the world and the human body works. The human mind and body are not distinct and separate from their environment, but a packet of pulsating energy constantly interacting with this vast sea of energy. The Field creates a picture of an interconnected universe and a new scientific theory which makes sense of ‘supernatural’ phenomena. Clearly, it is just as scientific to make the claim that primitive dancing is beneficial to the mind-body-spirit triune, as to make the claim that antiseptics are useful in preventing a wound from becoming septic. To start with this backdrop is an attempt to allay the fears of the skeptic, left-brain, ‘nuts and bolts’ type of individual. What follows are not the pratings of demented shamans with nothing better to do than to go around chanting mantras whilst gyrating to some primitive drumming in other-worldly dance routines attempting to convince the status quo of the holistic value of such a pathetic exercise. No, what follows is a daring journey back into humanity’s ‘hinterland’ or ‘womb’ where it cam from, backed up by research and experience from the participants that will be cited.
For the purposes of this dissertation, primitive dance includes all forms of ritual or ceremonial or religious or spiritual forms of movement and or dance, that in any way resembles what so-called primitive cultures have been employing from time immemorial to appease the gods, to heal, to commune, to attract a mate, to enjoy and of course, as part of a holistic health regimen. The American Dance Therapy Association, defines ‘Dance/Movement Therapy’ as: “a process which furthers the emotional, cognitive, social and physical integration of the individual” ( ¶ 1). This is an excellent adjunct definition of primitive dance, for the purposes of this dissertation.
The mere fact that there is an American Dance Therapy Association, means it is very relevant to study the holistic value of primitive dance vis-à-vis the holistic health of modern man, but by no means is it the only reason. Colucci, states:
Dance/movement therapy has, in most recent years, become an effective
tool for treating symptoms of anxiety. Dance has been known to have
powerful effects on the mind, body, and emotions. With this multi-
sensory experience comes a new form of treatment for illness,
dance/movement therapy. This therapy combines rhythmic movement
with self-expression to create a physiological response that is of the
healing dimension. Dance therapy acknowledges the connection of the
mind and body and seeks to heal the one through the other. Although the
effects of dance therapy on anxiety have just begun to be researched, it
has already been shown to be an effective form of treatment. One of the
main reasons that this treatment is so successful is its use of non-verbal
communication and other forms of self-expression. Mohacsy (1995)
claims that at times, words are simply not adequate, a physical form of
communication is necessary, especially when releasing feelings of
anxiety. He claims that dance therapy offers this type of communication
through self-expressive actions and relaying emotions through imagery.
Boris (2001) credits early work of Marion Chace with providing the first
insightful background to test for the effects of dance on anxiety. Chace
was a pioneer and often cited as the creator of the field dance/movement
therapy in the early 1950’s, due to her background in dance and almost
accidental integration into treatment. She developed this procedure after
acquiring a position at a rehabilitation facility and applying her dance
background into treatment. Boris (2001) explains that Chace never felt
like she was treating her patients, or performing for them, but rather she
was dancing with them, and in turn healing them. This fact became the
foundation of her treatment as a professional, and later, the foundation for
the entire field of dance therapy. (¶ 1-4)
Primitive dance is also a multi-sensory, if not quantum, experience. It also combines rhythmic movement with self-expression to create a physiological response that is of the healing dimension, in a setting that may or may not be reminiscent of a primitive tribe dancing in the dawn of time. The time, the setting, the costumes, the place are of secondary importance to the actual immersion in and full experience in the participation of primitive dance.
Of equal importance is the philosophy, the movement, the reverence, the frame of mind that one brings to the experience of primitive dance. Colucci, writes:
The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of dance
therapy and relaxation therapy on the anxiety levels of college students,
specifically state anxiety. It was hypothesized that dance therapy, with its
non-verbal and self-expressive communication methods, would elicit a
greater reduction in anxiety levels than relaxation therapy. The
physiological measure of skin conductance was also tested and it was also
thought that dance therapy would educe lower skin conductance levels
than relaxation therapy due to the aforementioned qualities….The results
obtained by this study did not support the hypothesis of dance therapy
having a greater effect on the reduction of anxiety versus relaxation
therapy. However, when observing the graph, it should be noted that
following the dance therapy session, there was a greater reduction of the
means of anxiety than the post-relaxation therapy treatment. (¶ 7-17)
These results pose no problem whatsoever with the main point of the dissertation, in that it is not claimed that primitive dance is a cure-all panacea, but merely one of many ways of enhancing holistic health.
Dance, has a history that has been linked with healing from time immemorial. Lemieux (1988), states:
Dance as a therapy has played an important role in native cultures. It was
used in rituals for healing with music and chants and with people in
trance states in many primitive cultures. This occurred in Bali,
the Native American culture. Often the ritual dance was lead by one
individual; the medium person or shaman. The shaman aids in receiving
messages from the spirits, assisting in leading rites of passage and healing
the sick. This would include dances to bless a baby, to ensure fertility to a
woman, to bring luck to a hunt, to send a spirit off, etc. Although the
dance as a ritual and healing continued to play a vital role in the native
cultures of the
the end of the twelfth century. Religious sects feared its “potential
inherent power” (Penny Bernstein, Eight Theoretical Approaches in
Dance/Movement Therapy, (p. 5). Dance became more stylized and
superficial. This trend continued with court dances and the beginning of
ballet. Although folk dances continued in rural culture as a means of
social dance, it was not until the twentieth century that dance re-emerged
as an emotional expressive art. Isadora Duncan appeared ‘barefoot and
emotive’ on the stages of
was born. (¶ 27)
This quote further set the stage as an appropriate way to delve into the analysis and review of the literature available regarding the holistic impact that primitive dance has had and still has, on modern man.
Dance, as a way to heal, as a way to integrate the mind-body-triune, has been with humanity from the beginning, surviving even the attempt by organized religion to suppress it. Wilde (1998), states:
In John Randolph Price’s wonderful little volume, The Abundance Book,
he cleverly reminds us that all the philosophies and religious systems of
the ancients included the concept of self-sufficiency-that the ideas of
harmony, peace and abundance are common to all cultures….The ideas of
self-sufficiency and the oneness of all things were edited out of the
scriptures and religious teachings. Self-empowerment and independence
were considered threats to religious authority and the feudal control of
common people….In the past, we were shamed and manipulated into
believing that the individual was not important, that all power and control
over our lives should be handed over to the authorities-who would act as
custod
It is easy to see that oppressed people are easy to manipulate and control. A self-empowered, independent population, though, cannot easily be controlled and manipulated. As a consequence the Church and State have always done their best to either ridicule self-empowering ideas or to outright outlaw them as heretical and or acts of treason. Primitive dance as a healing modality easily falls into this category. It is also easy to see that once humanity moves through all the ridicule, all the shame, all the quackery that the status quo richly associates with primitive dance as a healing modality, humanity can begin to gain the freedom, the independence, and the holistic value that goes with it. This is no easy task, the programming of the status quo is extremely formidable.
Through the medium of primitive dance healing and communal expression is experienced. New inspiration is received for the inner journey as well as for avocation in the modern world!
This experiential workshop is based on simple folk dances, the living
descendants of the primitive healing dance which is also the ancestor of
dance/movement therapy. Along with creative improvisation and
meditation on ancient images of woman, they provide a structure for a
‘living ritual’. This helps us journey to the roots of healing dance and to
the source of our empowerment as women. We are enabled to find a new
context for our present-day questioning, and new hope for the future we
imagine.
The simplest village folk dances are the ones which have
survived the longest, and are considered by dance anthropologists to be
the living descendants of the primitive therapeutic dance tradition which
is also the ancestor of dance/movement therapy. Through them we can
touch the source of dance as healing, communal expression, and receive
new inspiration for our inner journey as well as our work in the modern
world.
Dance therapy is said to have its roots in primitive healing dance as it has
been practised throughout history. Many authors in dance therapy
literature including Leventhal, Levy, Bartenieff, Bernstein, Schmais,
Hanna, Espenak and Blacking, acknowledge the historic use of dance as a
therapeutic modality and an antecedent of present-day dance therapy. The
early dance forms themselves have, for the most part, disappeared, but
their influence is apparent in the ethnic and folk dance traditions
descended from them: Lange tells us that "there is a visible connection
between the art of the vanished 'primitive' cultures and those still existing"
and that "these connections have lasted into contemporary times".
The dances themselves are in line, open and closed circle, labyrinth/ spiral
and solo formations, all of which contribute in their own way to the
provision of a safe and supportive space in which healing can occur.
Sharing rhythm and effort quality creates an atmosphere of mutual
holding and support, while simple movements are repeated to evoke the
universality of human experience in space and time. The circular dance
pattern can be seen as a mandala, where the personal circle is aligned with
the circle of the universe, and so the universal symbol of unity and totality
becomes a personal symbol as well. The mandala enables each dancer to
centre herself and harmonises the different energies of the individual
dancers into a balanced whole.
The ritual is created primarily by the forms and structures of the dances
themselves, and is given meaning by the attitude and intention that the
dancers bring to it. As Beck and Metrick explain in The Art of Ritual, the
purpose of creative ritual is to increase "balance and connection within
ourselves, with each other, the world, and with the larger rhythms and
energies that bring stability and light to our lives". The ritual can serve as
a symbolic bridge between the roots of our profession, its present-day
questioning, and the future we imagine. ( ¶ 3-8)
There it is, crystal clear and easy to comprehend. Note the plethora of characteristic phrases that were encountered as the review progressed ‘…through them we can touch the source of dance as healing, communal expression, and receive new inspiration for our inner journey as well as our work in the modern world…’ this was the essence of the dissertation. There is a huge gaping hole in humanity’s hectic and frenetic lives. A hole that can easily, adequately and inexpensively be filled by pursuing participation in primitive dance as a modality of holistic health. Bradshaw (1998), mentions the hole in the soul that exists in modern man. This hole in the soul comes to humanity as an inheritance for living in so-called civilization, cut off from sharing rhythm and effort which creates an atmosphere of mutual holding and support, simple movements repeated to evoke the universality of human experience in space and time.
Primitive dance has been researched and studied by many. Eminent among those is Emilie Conrad, founder and director of Continuum Movement. Emilie Conrad is a visionary whose revolutionary work continues to inspire an international audience of therapists and movement educators. Emilie was born and raised in
Dr Hunt (1995), maintains that at the deepest level, all things are composed of vibrations ordered into fields that saturate the entire constitution. Vibration heals. It soothes muscles, stimulates nerves, generates energy. Within the body is a veritable symphony of vibrations. The liver produces one vibratory “chord,” each nerve another, and the bones yet another. Indeed each cell is playing a particular note that contributes to overall harmony.
Hunt’s groundbreaking study demonstrated that enhancing fluid primary movements is essential to the ability to innovate. Hunt’s study brought new insights to the understanding of the healing of disease, paralysis and the aging process. Hunt’s study found that Continuum movements vibrated at a higher frequency and were more complex than larger, gross movements. These movements could innovate new neural pathways, liberate locked tissue and activate a fluid flux in a previously static system. The movement within the fluids transforms all healing processes. Continuum Movement Therapy maintains that an element of illness results from constraints on what would be an inherently mutable system. Humans, as fluid-based organisms, have the potential to organize, fluctuate and re-organize according to circumstance. Constraints, accumulated over time, impede the flexibility of the system. Through the daily mingling of psychological, cultural, neuromuscular, and stress factors, layers of compensation are developed that become solidified, patterned and continually recycled. Eventually, the body becomes a closed system, vulnerable to the onslaught of illness and emotional disarray. Continuum presents a graceful way of easing the constraints that inhibit the body’s inherent flexibility and innate intelligence to facilitate healing. By enhancing the fluid system’s ability to transform, Continuum creates an adaptive body that welcomes, responds to and maintains change.
Primitive dance is intimately intertwined with nutrition, as Tierra (1998), points out:
True ‘holistic’ healing involves a healing of both mind and soul, and
native shamans, curanderos and medicine men and women are always
very aware of this fact. Using various tricks and performances to entice
and help others to see themselves in a more positive way, they offer herbs
as plant sacraments providing a specific point of focus for all of their
creative play. (p. xxvii).
The amb
African dance use of the body itself and the characteristic use of bent knees and the isolation of body parts makes it very holistic. Katz (1982), lucidly portrays the dynamic of a community that is benefiting from primitive dance. Apart from the obvious benefit of keeping one fit, primitive dance has many other benefits. Within African Dance is found the closest and most physical links between life overall and the dance. Traditional African music is participatory. All the activities of daily life are often accompanied by music, song, and rhythm. Every day, there may be a special event in which music and dance is the central activity. Almost everyone present will be actively involved in several different ways at once, playing instruments, dancing, singing, hand-clapping, observing, commenting, being commented upon. This creates the desired holistic effect of belonging, appreciation, purpose, leading to belief in self and emancipation.
The Bushmen or San of the Kalahari in
The most concise of explanations for how firewalking actually works
comes from the most primitive of cultures on our planet, the Kung of the
observed and reported upon by several Western scholars, always with a
sense of awe and amazement, for the Kung take the practice far beyond
the "typical" firewalk. They dance through fires that have been burning
for hours, standing still in the fire, picking up coals in their hands, putting
their faces and heads into the flames, rubbing coals into their bodies,
swallowing coals--all with an incredible sense of freedom, and without
any of the equivocal factors that concern skeptics.
One vivid account has come to us through
professor, Richard Katz. 52 Katz spent his time among the Kung focusing
specifically upon their approach to healing, and their experience with
altered states of consciousness. Central to the Kung's philosophy and
healing practices is their belief in an all-pervasive spiritual energy that
they call num, and the high-energy-enhanced state of consciousness called
kia. Their major way for activating num and going into kia is the ritual of
the healing dance, an all-night ecstatic ceremony that often inspires
dancers to "work with" the fire in extraordinary ways. Thus, the Kung
have developed a powerful experience of firedancing and have done so
within a consistent and well-reasoned philosophical context. (Rather than
the strictly religious explanations of so many firewalking cultures.)
The Kung firedance to activate num so that certain members of the
community will go into kia, which in turn promotes healing for
individuals in need, and for the community as a whole. According to Katz,
“The Kung also practice extraordinary activities during kia. They perform
cures and, as part of their effort to heal, may handle and walk on fire, see
the insides of people's bodies and scenes at great distances from their
camp, or travel to god's home--activities never attempted in their ordinary
state.”
In the words of a Kung healer, “When we enter kia, we are different from
when our num is not boiling and small. We can do different things.”
Another Kung comments, “If a ‘big’ healer wants to go into the fire, we
would let him, because he is an owner of num. He may kneel and stick his
head in the fire and hold it there.”
As extraordinary as such activities may seem to us, they make perfect
sense to the Kung. As Katz puts it, “The Kung do not see working with
the fire as extraordinary; they are not surprised that they are not burned.
Their explanation is simple: when the num in their body is boiling and as
hot as the fire, they cannot be burned when working with the fire. When
their num is dormant or cold or cooled down, they can be burned.”
Just as their actions in the boiling num state of kia do not seem especially
extraordinary to the Kung, neither does the actual experience of having
num, boiling or cold, nor the experience of going into kia. The Kung
experience num as real, tangible, and physical, not at all abstract, esoteric,
or merely mental. They speak of the boiling of num in the same way, and
with the same word for "boiling," as they would speak of boiling water, or
cooking food, or the ripening of fruits and vegetables, or the first menses
of a young woman. In each case they describe a physical event in which
essential spiritual energy has been excited, aroused, and "boiled" to
perfect fruition.
One Kung healer describes the boiling of num: “You dance, dance, dance,
dance. Then num lifts you up in your belly and lifts you in your back, and
you begin to shiver. Num makes you tremble; it's hot . . . you're looking
around because you see everything, you see what's troubling everybody.
